Recommendations for students on use of Generative AI (e.g., Open AI’s ‘Chat GPT’)
The following guidance in the table below has been created to support students. As part of an academic community, we all (staff and students) need to unite to uphold
core principles and values such as our (academic) integrity with the advancement of AI. It is important that students recognise that they must not use generative AI
tools to generate assignments e.g. essays. This is a form of plagiarism with potentially serious consequences.
Used in the right way, generative AI can support students’ learning and development. At its worst, if abused, AI has the potential to devalue our degrees and detract
students from the learning gained through their assessments.
The following dos and don'ts aim to guide and support students in their use of generative AI tools:
Key areas to be
aware of in the
use of AI
Using AI to write
your assignment
AI current limitations
AI is often inaccurate;
it is very important to
be critical of anything
generated by AI and to
apply the same
criticality we would to
any source. For
example, we should
not assume an
apparent quote or fact
is, accurate or even
real.
AI produces a very
generic, often surfacelevel response which
can sound automated
in style.
Responses generated
can be westerncentric, be dated,
Recommended Dos and Don’ts
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Use it as a starting point for an essay question: to brainstorm, to give
you an indication of what’s required, to help you understand the
essay question, to clarify concepts that you are having difficulty
understanding.
Use it to help you create a plan for your work.
Use it as starting point to identify gaps in research and areas to
investigate further (being mindful of bias, assumptions etc).
Generate a whole assignment and simply hand it in – you learn from
working and developing an assignment which will be lost if you do
not engage. This could catch up with you as learning is incremental it is best not to start using AI in this way as it can be a slippery slope!
Assume that AI will or can teach you content that you do not
understand as the information you receive may not be correct. You
should speak to your teacher, seek support offered by SOAS or
discuss with your peers if you are having difficulty understanding key
concepts.
Allow AI and its development to impact on your sense of integrity
and your core values. Submitting work that isn’t yours is a form of
cheating and in today’s world we all (staff and students) need to
ensure we maintain our integrity.
Additional support and
guidance available
The Student Learning Centre is
your portal to learning support
at SOAS.
Book a tutorial with a 1-1
tutor through the Skills for
success page.
Studiosity is a free personal
learning service that is
available to all students
enrolled at SOAS.
The Assessment Support for
Students page will take you
through the process of
submitting your assignment
files with some tips to help
troubleshoot problems and
submit successfully.
make assumptions
and contain bias. It
can generate
responses that do not
align with SOAS’
values.
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Assume that AI will evade Turnitin detection – there have been
instances where software and/or academics are picking up
similarities (i.e., many assignments are submitted through Turnitin).
How do you know your response is unique?
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Use AI to better understand/ clarify a difficult piece of text so you can
work towards your own understanding. Used as an educational tool,
it can help you to make sense of difficult text.
Remember you are the author and as such you should work on
developing a unique style of writing.
It cannot replicate
your unique style and
voice.
Be aware that a pass
or good grade is
unlikely, and lecturers
can detect AI text.
Use AI to
paraphrase &
summarise
AI produces a very
generic, often surfacelevel paraphrase/
summary which can
sound automated in
style.
An AI-generated
paraphrase is no
substitute for the
learning gained
through reading a text
and making sense of
ideas for yourself.
Using sources
and referencing
Sources identified by
AI may be limited in
terms of scope,
contemporary ideas
etc.
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Copy and paste a paragraph and ask the AI to paraphrase it directly
for you.
Assume you will learn from AI generated paraphrasing. The reason
we paraphrase is to make sense of texts; the learning is in clarifying
(an often-difficult text) and reformulating it in your own words.
Don’t assume the text generated by AI will not be picked up by
Turnitin – how can you be sure it is unique (e.g., if other students are
asking the same thing?).
Use it as a tool to identify sources and develop referencing. There are
already other referencing tools in use, so the same principles apply
here in its careful use.
Ask AI to check the referencing for you and identify weak areas to
develop – it can be a useful tool for feedback.
SOAS offers study skills
workshops to support
students with their reading,
writing and referencing skills.
Familiarise yourselves with the
common pitfalls of academic
practice and how to avoid
plagiarism in your writing.
Consult the guidance on
submitting and using Turnitin
to support your learning at
SOAS.
SOAS offers study skills
workshops to support
students with referencing
skills.
There may be bias
towards western texts
and ideas.
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Copy references used in an AI generated text without verifying its
credibility and reading the original source.
Use it to reference without understanding what correct referencing
should look like.
Familiarise yourselves with the
common pitfalls of academic
practice and how to avoid
plagiarism in your writing.
Use AI as a tool to research into other cultures, histories or peoples
to develop your own understanding of the world.
Use AI to understand the factors that influence that make up human
emotion and lived experience.
Use AI as creative support – to brainstorm initial ideas (it can be a
useful starting point or to develop your writing/ arguments).
Rely on AI to understand and express your lived human experience.
Rely too heavily on the model's output given its limitations.
Interpret AI human-like responses for genuine understanding and
accurate insight – it is a tool to support learning, not replace learning.
Read about how you can build
Academic Resilience to
support your learning journey.
Use it as a tool to identify spelling and grammar issues.
Use it for feedback on your work.
Use it to translate language (where appropriate) remembering that it
should not be a substitute for learning. It can provide a useful means
to understand a text and a model for comparison.
Studiosity is a free 24-7
personal learning service that
is available to all students
enrolled at SOAS to ask for
feedback on their work,
including language, spelling
Sources can contain
misinformation, biais,
prejudice etc.
AI connection to
lived experience
AI does not have the
capacity to feel
emotions or
experience the world
in the way that
humans do.
AI can generate
human-like responses
to prompts, it has
limitations in terms of
accuracy, currency,
bias, and context.
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Use the SOAS Support Services
for your well-being.
AI cannot consider
non-verbal cues or
physical sensations
that can contribute to
the overall meaning of
a message.
Developing
language
The language
generated can sound
automated and
generic.
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Working with
Data
Exams
E.g., remote
exams
AI is not a unique
human with unique
language.
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AI cannot consider
non-verbal cues or
physical sensations
that can contribute to
the overall meaning of
a message which may
be taken into
consideration when
analysing qualitative
data (e.g., focus group
data)
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AI produces a very
generic, often surfacelevel response which
can sound automated
in style.
Responses generated
can be westerncentric, be dated,
make assumptions
and contain bias.
It cannot replicate
your unique style and
voice.
Be aware that a pass
or good grade is
unlikely, and lecturers
can detect AI text.
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Assume it is 100% accurate (i.e., with a translation); don’t submit a
piece of work without checking its accuracy.
Expect it to be able develop a unique style of writing and expression.
Allow AI to take away the learning in terms of understanding
grammar and developing language.
and grammar. Turn around for
feedback can be on the same
day.
Use it (where appropriate and permitted) to analyse data, recognise
patterns, and make predictions based on that data.
Be mindful of its limitations in terms of data analysis.
Evaluate the responses generated for any signs of bias or
discrimination.
Use clear guidelines so you can use AI to help you produce quality
content.
Rely completely on automated responses; you must verify your
results independently to mitigate against any programming errors.
Forget any ethical standards you must adhere to depending on the
type of data you’re analysing.
Forget any security/GDPR measures you must adhere to.
Adhere to guidelines from your convenor/ programme; what are the
expectations in its use?
Use it to clarify concepts and ask for explanations
Use it to review notes and reinforce understanding of key concepts
covered in the course.
Use it to brainstorm ideas; be careful not to rely solely on the AIgenerated ideas.
Refer to skills for success (selfstudy resources) e.g. the
section on ‘introduction to
research methods’ has some
support with analysing data
Submit a response directly generated by AI.
Forget your response is often submitted via Turnitin which has been
identifying similarities from AI generated responses.
Forget your lecturers are also trained to identify generic responses.
Don’t put your university education at risk.
SOAS offers study skills
workshops to support
students with their exam
skills.
Use the SOAS Support Services
for your well-being during the
exam period.
The Assessment Support for
Students page will take you
through the process of
submitting your assignment
files with some tips to help
troubleshoot problems and
submit successfully.